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Swedish television station (SVT) shows are accused of "insulting China"

Swedish television station (SVT) shows are accused of “insulting China”

Swedish television station (SVT) broadcast an entertainment program called “Svenska nyheter” on Friday night (21st). The host used a satirical language to ridicule recent Chinese tourists. One of the pictures is A warning icon with the words “prohibition of stool” in Chinese, the program also satirizes Chinese people eating dog meat.

By – Sara Malm

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Beijing has made an official complaint against a Swedish television show after they aired a segment joking about Chinese tourists defecating in public and eating dogs.

The clip on satire programme Svenska Nyheter [Swedish News] included a list of ‘do’s and don’t’s’ for Chinese people visiting Sweden, including telling them not to ‘poo outside historical buildings’.

The show was aired a week after Swedish police removed three Chinese citizens from a Stockholm hotel, which they had refused to leave despite not being booked to stay there.

During the show, which aired on Friday, host Jesper Rönndahl had quoted a series of news reports about Chinese tourists behaving badly abroad, including that they ‘poo outside the Louvre in Paris’.

He then announced that in order to help Chinese visitors to Sweden, Svenska Nyheter had made an infomercial which they uploaded to YouKu – the Chinese version of YouTube – where thousands saw the clip, many believing it to be a serious video.

The two-minute clip sees a female ‘presenter’ address tourists in Swedish, with a Chinese voiceover translating her words.

‘Welcome highly honored Chinese tourist,’ she starts the video.

‘Here are some tips for you to avoid culture clashes. For example, here, we don’t poo outside historical buildings.

‘But if you have ended up with poo on your hands, here in Sweden we wash our hands.

‘If you see someone out walking a dog, it’s not because they’ve just bought themselves some lunch.

‘In Sweden we eat using a knife and fork, and while at the dinner table, we don’t poop. ‘

The presenter then accuses Chinese people of being racist, before saying that they are ‘most welcome to the Kingdom of Sweden’.

‘But if you don’t behave yourselves, we’ll kick the shit out of you.’

The episode sparked uproar on Chinese social media and an unusually strong response from Beijing.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said today: ‘The (Svenska Nyheter) anchor’s remarks are full of discrimination, prejudice and provocation against China and other ethnic groups, completely deviating from professional media ethics.

‘We strongly condemn this.’

The Ministry said it and the Chinese Embassy in Stockholm had already made ‘solemn representations and strong protests’ to the Swedish side from Beijing and Stockholm.

In response, SVT entertainment chief Thomas Hall said: ‘I think it is so apparent that this is comedy, assuming that you know Swedish. But at the same time I understand that if you don’t know Swedish it is possible to misunderstand.’